There is no “compelling educational reason to have a go-home holiday [for Good Friday], since Easter typically follows pretty fast upon Spring break.” How horribly sad to read this from Provost Joel Carpenter in the April 20 issue of Chimes (“Students Chain Buildings in Protest”). Why on earth should there need to be an educational reason, “compelling” or otherwise, to have classes off on Good Friday? I do Provost Carpenter the honor of assuming that his words, if taken in their full context, might not be so troubling as they appear here. But Calvin’s policy of not observing Good Friday in its entirety becomes even more troubling when one sees the sort of logic behind it. For a college that includes an entire section on “Worship and Christian Service” in its catalogue, that stresses chapel observance, church attendance and daily devotions, not to better acknowledge Easter weekend seems more than slightly hypocritical.

Calvin should set aside as a day without classes not only Good Friday but Easter Monday as well, and it should do so not for educational reasons but for religious reasons. As it stands, the Good Friday policy indicates that our Lord’s death is worth only half a day of remembrance. It forces students who wish to travel home to spend Easter with their families to travel on the afternoon of Good Friday, usually during the hours of 12-3, when (according to tradition) Christ hung on the cross. Many denominations, including my own, often have church services during these three hours as well as on Good Friday evening. During my four years at Calvin I was never able to go to one of these services because I was in the car driving home. Students farther away from home than I might have difficulty making the trip at all, and Calvin would do well to remember that one result of its quest for diversity is that not all students are from Grand Rapids or Holland.

I was also troubled by Provost Carpenter’s explanation that canceling classes on Good Friday would force compromises elsewhere, and that if, for instance, classes were held on the Monday after spring break, students would be forced to travel on Sunday, which would “violat[e] . . . people’s religious scruples.” How hypocritical this justification seems when one considers that in order for a student to spend Easter with his family (surely at least as worthy a wish as wanting to enjoy spring break to the fullest), he has to travel not only on a Sunday, but on Easter Sunday, the most important day of the Christian church year. The event celebrated on Easter, Christ’s rising, is the event by which all of us live; surely it is worth one day of celebration. It certainly could be spent better than in a long drive back to Calvin in the car.

Most students seem willing to give up a day elsewhere in order to get at least Good Friday off. But, ultimately, whether or not students wish to have classes on Good Friday and Easter Monday is beside the point. In areas such as these, Calvin should not cater to students’ wishes; it bears a Christian responsibility to set an example. I love a long Christmas vacation more than just about anyone I know, but what does it say when Calvin grants two weeks vacation for that (important) day, yet acknowledges Easter, considered more important than Christmas throughout the history of Christian church, by only half a day? What does it say when my sister, who works for the Indiana state government, receives the day off as a state holiday, yet the Christian school I attend, the school that integrates its faith even into bowling and badminton classes, tells me to spend the morning in classes? Calvin’s mission statement says “We offer education that is shaped by Christian faith, thought, and practice. We study and address a world made good by God, distorted by sin, redeemed in Christ, and awaiting the fullness of God’s reign.” Distorted by sin, redeemed by God. That is what the days from Good Friday to Easter are all about, yet Calvin rejects the idea of taking time to recognize these days, of allowing students the opportunity to observe their churches’ traditions and celebrate that most joyous of days with their families, because there is “no compelling educational reason.”

I realize that, as Provost Carpenter noted, “there’s no perfect solution.” But some solutions are better than others. I also realize that a “sacrifice” of some other vacation day might be necessary to get Good Friday and Easter Monday off; I realize that it might not be simple or easy for the college to do this but, after all, it wasn’t easy or simple for Christ to die on the cross for us. Surely, Calvin could make whatever small sacrifice is needed to observe Good Friday in the manner it deserves.